197 replies to this topic

[Acrilix]

I think there is every chance that PG2 will go subscription based. AJ always wanted it, and it has already been happening on the simulator side for some time, so I guess that Trackman would probably be happy with it too.

If it does happen I will be sad to leave my favourite game, but I will no doubt soon replace it with another that doesn't work on this financial model.

As to $100 a year, does anyone really believe that the features and updates this game has received so far since it was first launched would justify such a fee? We've probably had more bugs than features introduced, and more frustration as time has gone by.

[Buck]

As to $100 a year, does anyone really believe that the features and updates this game has received so far since it was first launched would justify such a fee? We've probably had more bugs than features introduced, and more frustration as time has gone by.

To be fair to PP and the analysis of the value proposition you mentioned, I'd probably cap that at the first 2 years.
In that scenario, I do actually think $100/year would have been worth it the first two years.

Updates were moving along - Devs were engaged on the forum - It felt like an entirely different world.
The last year however - not nearly as much..

[sideshowbob]

I would only pay for PG2 in sterling!

[Buck]

As with most things in life, everything old is new again, including this topic.

This topic came up in 2013 and there are lots of good points and familiar themes in here:

Pricing Ideas / Thoughts (from 2013)

Looks like I agreed with K11 nearly 5 years ago! (I wasn't actually a member here then)
 

As a TWO member, I payed 12 cents a day for 27 months, during which I spent around 1 hour every day with the game. I posted as much in another thread. That is - or rather was - an incredibly cost-effictive way of playing computer golf, socialising with others and having both good fun and very tense competitions (yes, even though it was a buggy, glitchy game made by EA, worst company of the year 2011/12, warts and all...)

Considering what each of us spends for going out, eating in a restaurant, going to the cinema, driving your car, and everything else, 12 cents a day is not much at all. Even if doubled, tripled or quadrupled, as far as I'm concerned, pricing for PG+CF will not be an issue for me. It still will be an incredibly cheap, passionating and rewarding form of entertainment that will outperform, in its buck-per-time-ratio, most other alternatives. Before announcing your pricing preferences, gentlemen, do your math.

[Buck]

lol

This getting ridiculous , poop or get off the pot .....ffs

I have recommended the team drink lots of warm water and eat a large amount of oranges - hopefully this will help.

[jmk59]

Buck - I heard PP is going to a cost-per-day model proportional to word count in this forum.  How much money do you have (need a loan)?  JK

[Acrilix]

As with most things in life, everything old is new again, including this topic.

This topic came up in 2013 and there are lots of good points and familiar themes in here:

http://www.perfectpa...ideas-thoughts/

Looks like I agreed with K11 nearly 5 years ago! (I wasn't actually a member here then)
 

 

I see back then Crusher was advocating a $100 a year subscription and predicting it would attract 10,000 online players in the first year!!! 

[Buck]

I see back then Crusher was advocating a $100 a year subscription and predicting it would attract 10,000 online players in the first year!!! 

 

LMAO!  I was waiting for someone to notice all of the Lee Ray posts!

You were actually present in that thread, so I'm guessing you remember it from when it was actually happening (that thread).

[Buck]

Buck - I heard PP is going to a cost-per-day model proportional to word count in this forum.  How much money do you have (need a loan)?  JK

 

Nicely played sir - that'll earn you a healthy "like fest" here...just standby..  

[Ted_Ball]

Before answering this poll question and speculating on payment programs and the form of updates, you should first ask yourself what sort of product you envision. 

 

You see there is actually no such thing as a niche market. Markets are constantly changing, ebbing and flowing by the minute. It is thinking restrictively to say, "Golf is a niche market". Balderdash! That is just another self-fulfilling prophecy. What you mean by that statement is that the golf game products we have at any particular time - by their quality or accessibility or developer/gamer relationship - have, due to the amount of units sold, a perception of lack of 'success'. Whatever 'success' means. The actual market is huge out there. Potentially it's in the billions if you were thinking big. Consider the Asian market alone.

 

Would any of you say a game where you sit in a tank would be a niche market? How many of you have sat in a tank firing armour-piercing shells in real life? And yet World of Tanks is huge. Australia has its server now with well over 1,000 participants at most times. I know you'll say that it's just appealling to youngsters blowing things up but there is more to it than that. Strategy, career, PvP and so on but the success came about because of a superb interface, regular development updates, etc. but most importantly capital expenditure. WoT is Free2Play by the way. 

 

Don't answer this question with PG1 in mind or those that develop it and what they are capable of with a ridiculously small team. PG1 has never got there. No matter what you might say about how good the gameplay is (and I agree that it is wonderful) it has never reached a status of a complete game. WoT was a complete game at launch and has been upgraded regularly since because you can't do it all at once - but it was complete and running as well as it could at launch.

 

So back to the question of PG2. Try to imagine a game that has been developed to the highest standard covering all aspects of a true simulation of golf including multiplayer competition. A game that you would be mad not to be involved in. A game that is constantly evolving and keeping pace with technological advances. Something that takes up a great deal of your waking hours. A community that is vibrant and growing daily. Competition that is so keen and integrated with sim users that you would be caught up like an addiction - much like real golf. Try to imagine that and then answer the question. 

 

If the game that I imagine was available I would be spending A LOT of money. As much as a yearly sim subscription. Hey, I spend a lot of time writing this garbage and recently have been putting in a couple of hours a day playing against recordings - and that's a game where I would consider myself to be a low key user. If the 'great' game was out there it would almost become my life. Don't forget there are a hell of a lot of old buggas who are getting ready for this stuff and they have plenty of time and plenty of money.

 

But I'll tell you one thing and I don't need a crystal ball...

 

It ain't gonna happen. 

[Acrilix]

LMAO!  I was waiting for someone to notice all of the Lee Ray posts!

You were actually present in that thread, so I'm guessing you remember it from when it was actually happening (that thread).

 

I don't remember too much these days...

I know that there was more chance of 10,000 Lee Ray user names than 10,000 online players at that price. 

[Buck]

I don't remember too much these days...
I know that there was more chance of 10,000 Lee Ray user names than 10,000 online players at that price. 

Careful A...
We are going to get all these posts reported and moderated if we aren't careful   

I always feel bad having someone fill up Crow's inbox, especially as he's recovering still I think..  

 

How many of you have sat in a tank firing armour-piercing shells in real life? And yet World of Tanks is huge.

Do they have an add-on pack called "World of Tanks: Perfect Golf Forum"?
There've always been a few of us here that I'm sure would love to fire some armor piercing rounds at each other... 

[Richard]

This topic has become “diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the mind. No, I’m not going to bypass reading this topic because the humor makes my day. 😃

[Buck]

This topic has become “diarrhea of the mouth and constipation of the mind.

 

lol

This might help...

 

...drink lots of warm water and eat a large amount of oranges - hopefully this will help.

[stringb]

Didn't PP float the idea of subscriptions or recurring payments a couple years ago, only to have it shot down overwhelmingly by the forum members at the time?  It seemed like a good idea then (as now) in order to assure devs a dependable income stream.  I can't see any game enjoying long-term health and development if users only plop down a one-time fee of $20 as I did with this game.  PG is one of the great investments of my gaming life.  But to expect infinite support and development for that $20 seems selfish and short-sighted which is why I have always liked the idea of recurring payments or subscriptions in some fashion.

[Buck]

Didn't PP float the idea of subscriptions or recurring payments a couple years ago, only to have it shot down overwhelmingly by the forum members at the time? 

 

Yep!  It was called the Season Pass (tentatively) and I was one of the voices against it.  

It was super short sighted of me at the time and I really regret it.

[jt83]

I was against it too, but a big reason for that was DLC, which I thought would make up for the pass not going ahead.  I did buy a few courses and would have bought more if they'd been a little more distinguished, not to mention new avatars if they'd been made available.

[ArcadeHack]

This game does not warrant a subscription for the pc version.

[Dazmaniac]

This game does not warrant a subscription for the pc version.

The poll is about PG2, not PG.

[MimicPS]

Just a quick thought, and I'm not even sure what direction my mind would take on this at present....

 

A Perfect Golf simulator pass currently costs the princely sum of $0.80 per day.

 

Trackman's acquisition of Perfect Parallel is most likely chiefly in two strategic directions:

 

1. To improve the overall offering of simulator play on real-course environments. However, a question has to be asked if the real-course environments which Trackman as owners of Perfect Parallel would look at would include user-created environments, what with liscensing, course-owners intellectual property, JNPG-designers intellectual property and the use of such environments, of quality ranging from superb to just good, within their own product.

 

2. To gain greater exposure and branding within golf broadcast, where the swing data an modelling which PP provides to broadcasters would be branded by Trackman, and where their own resources can dramatically improve the scope and depth of what is a major part of Perfect Parallel's established business.

 

A consumer game product is most likely not a strategic acquisition which drove the purchase, but of course has been hand-in-hand with the development of the game side of the product, alongside its use for simulation. You always have to bear in mind that not far behind the original previews of the game when still in development, we saw it in action within a simulation environment.

 

Based on the as yet unconfirmed assumption that users of other simulator products would continue to be able to use any future version of Perfect Golf that may come about, it may make sense for the new owners to continue the option to play the game using the established input methods, but actually charge the same rate as it is costing the game's simulator players at present.

 

With that in mind, and as I have said in opening this post, without really having weighed up how I feel about that as a future pricing structure, the question for me is presently:

 

Am I willing to pay possibly as much as 80 cents a day to continue to gain my golfing enjoyment in the manner in which I presently play, whilst also supporting the business model of the game's developers / owners, and most likely put it on a much firmer footing whilst continuing the access to the product outside of the simulator cohort?